Home is where we rest, hide from the busy world, and witness times of blissful calm for most of us. Yet all too much, the sounds of cars, neighbors, crowds, and buildings disrupt our fortresses of silence, trying to interrupt us and startle our thoughts from their relaxation. This may be a real-life sign, but that doesn’t suggest that we have to keep putting up with it. In this article we will show you how to protect your house from any noise pollution outside.
Soundproofing a Wall
Wouldn’t it be awesome if all the sound coming outside of your home could be muffled and silenced? You achieve peace and calm by soundproofing your walls, and you bring a little harmony to your home. You’ll need to minimize shakes, block sound holes, and withstand sounds to calm household noise (read about soundproofing materials on silencewiki.com).
Step 1: Put an Extra Dry Wall
Brick and stone are perfect for refurbishing the interior walls when it comes to high, yet impractical. To put up a dense, sound-deadening wall, the first technique is to install a second layer of drywall. You can separate yourself in a loud environment or a silent space. Then, your new drywall will have to be refinished and repainted, and the electrical sockets and switch boxes will also be extended in the process.
Step 2: Caulking Sandwich
The two layers of drywall with 3/8-inch-thick pellets of acoustical caulk are isolated as an added protection. The caulk will act as a shield for vibrations that want to migrate from one sheet of drywall to the next.
Step 3: Add a MLV
Mass-loaded vinyl (MLV), designed specifically for noise reduction, is a lightweight material that comes in 4-foot-wide rolls. In order to further deaden noises, it is designed to hang on walls or set up on floors. To greatly limit sound propagation through walls, insert it between layers of drywall.
Step 4: Add Acoustic Panels that Absorbs Sounds
Panels come in a range of sizes and widths and are made of porous expanded polypropylene (PEPP). Many styles are wrapped in fabrics of hundreds of colors to pick from for home use. Some manufacturers sell custom-printed fabrics that convert your sound blocking panel into a wall art piece: submit a digital clip, and your panel will replicate it. Add this to your wall using velcro and you’re good to go.
Tip: Soundproofing items also come with a classification of Sound Transmission Class (more info on sciencedirect.com). STC is a calculation of how many sound isolation decibels a device contains. The higher the ranking for the STC, the better. A 10 STC amplification lets the noise sound like it’s been cut in half. So make sure that the materials you buy for your wall soundproofing include an STC calculation tag.
How To Soundproof Walls From Noisy Neighbors Video Review
Soundproofing a Door
Like metal weather stripping, rubber is built not only for leaks but also for noise sealing and blocking. Although you’ll find a few various particle weatherstripping models available, the kind with an epoxy adhesive is the simplest one to use. Ultimately, metal weatherstripping is the best thing to make your door soundproof. Here are the steps that you need to do:
Step 1: Door Preparation (Measuring and Strapping)
Measure the width of the door frame and the size of the door jamb after all previous residual weather stripping has been discontinued. Unroll the metal weather stripping and use a marker depending on the measurements taken to classify the wounds. The spring’s metal weatherstripping is then trimmed to the required length using tin snips.
Tip: If the weather stripping of your spring steel does not include pre-punched gaps, blot every 1-1/4 inches around the edge of the steel so that you recognize where to position your nails. You might also want to punch prior to the nailing manually for the outer sheath: put the edge of the awl for each mark and press with a hammer’s edge.
Step 2: Hanging
Hang around the door jamb from which the door sits your first cut of weather stripping so that the component almost reaches the threshold. Utilize tin snips to cut away metal that can prevent the hinges from working.
Or, if the metal weatherstripping is readied with pre-punched holes, push the first gap (at the highest point) and the last (at the lower part) of the strip partially into the nail, not all the way in. Visually check and, if appropriate, change the strip that seems to be smooth.
Step 3: Nailing
At the core of the weatherstripping, press a nail partway. And, at consistent intervals, keep inserting nails all along the strip. For the next strip, perform Steps 1 through 3.
Step 4: Inserting the Nail to the Strips
Finish the procedure of inserting the nails or screws through the strips until all the nails are in position and you are happy with the weatherstripping placement. Hold the head of the fastener flush with the strip. Similarly, as this will weaken the metal, do not hammer or push it into the metal.
Alternative: You can use an adhesive weatherstripping as an alternative to metal. Like metal weatherstripping, rubber is built not only for drafts but also for noise sealing and blocking. Although you’ll notice a few different rubber weatherstripping models available, the kind with adhesive backing is the simplest one to use.
Video: Soundproofing Doors DIY – What Works & What doesn’t
Soundproofing a Window
Here are four steps to soundproof windows and efficiently minimize noise from vehicles passing through them, to allow you to reduce the issue of noise coming in through your windows.
Step 1: Seal Some Variations Across the Glass
To limit the amount of outside noise from entering your house, ensure you close all the openings around your walls. For acoustic caulk (sealant) or weatherstripping sealants, you can easily do it by inserting the weatherstripping sealants with nails or adhesive. The volume of noise coming in is significantly decreased as a result of blocking all the little openings between the wall and the boundaries of the glass.
Step 2: Form a Shielding Before the Window
It could be very effective to install a barrier around your house and the pavement or lane. You may achieve this by planting existing boundary shrubs or otherwise constructing a fence. All of these would help the sound waves to break. Noise will also go through, over and under the fence, so it will help reduce the volume going through the windows dramatically.
Step 3: Curtains with Acoustics
The second step deals with the inner room outside of the walls. Acoustic curtains are an ideal means of deflecting noise that enters your house from outside sources, much like normal curtains. Acoustic curtains are simple to mount, customized to your exact design. They are made from a tested acoustic fabric available in a variety of colors, making them a rather fashionable and efficient home choice. Such advantages include the filtering of unnecessary light over bedroom walls, which can make a huge difference to sleep efficiency and general wellbeing.
Step 4: Two Frame Window Pane
This step is an alternative for Step 3
You can invest in this alternative if you currently only have single-pane windows. Two panes of glass incorporated into the frame have double-paned windows. The glass panes are covered with argon gas, providing an insulating pocket even stronger than single-pane windows that prevent heat transfer. This alternative will greatly minimize the volume of noise (by up to 60 percent).
How To Soundproof A Window Cheaply From Outside Noise [ 8 Easy DIY Hacks]
FAQ
Does soundproof foam keep noise out?
We are often asked the same question about soundproofing insulation, whether that is soundproofing against loud neighbors, or constructing your own home studio. Unfortunately, egg box style foam doesn’t really prevent your neighbor’s transferring sound through your wall or leaving your space. What it’s going to do is block more of the room’s sound and save it from ringing and amplifying. It’s not going to block the sound of neighbors or escape from your place.
What absorbs sound best?
Acoustic fabric panels. The loss of sound energy is presented by sound absorption and sound waves are generated by materials that absorb sound put on areas such as walls, ceilings, floors. Acoustic fabric panels, such as high-density fiberglass or foam, are composed of timber frames covered in fabric with some other noise absorber.
One of the commonly used fabrics is a thick fiberglass sheet as a bass pit, coping with low sound frequencies. They have efficient and superior sound absorption by effectively regulating reverberation and echo. The fabric can also be enticing, so you have a variety of layers and designs to choose from to help decorate a room.
Do room dividers block sound?
No space divider will block 100 percent of the sound. It is evident that the panels on both sides of the panel are built with sound appalls and fiberglass isolation to trap as much sound as possible. However, dividers both display and absorb sound waves even not the entirety of it. Based on your divider’s size, length, and specification, quite enough as 65% of the noise from one side to the other would be blocked.
Will moving blankets block sound?
Moving blankets or cloth blankets have sound absorbing characteristics, but they are porous and therefore very translucent acoustically. They are not directed at suppressing noise. A substantial weight or density would be needed for any soundproof blankets because the efficacy of the soundproofing is directly proportional to the load of the blanket. For instance, if you can hardly raise the fabric, a door or window would likely do an efficient job of soundproofing the blanket.
Does noise blocking curtains really work?
Soundproof curtains are very successful as sound barriers for sound deadening devices, but they are almost completely not functioning as sound blocker. Which means they are useful for minimizing echo in a room in a realistic sense, but they would not decrease the decibel amount of sounds entering the room.
Even so, just because it doesn’t do anything to decrease the decibel level does not really mean that a soundproof curtain won’t really help compensate for your room. Soundproof curtains, for instance, work much like the clothes in the wardrobe. Usually, the frequency of the sound source is not silent, but they let the sound die out much quicker inside the room. From a sound perspective, this makes the room more pleasant.
Any other questions? Get more interesting information about Soundproofing a Room or an Entire House here!
I'm a 34-year-old freelance musician and soundproofing specialist, DIY enthusiast, blog author, and Silence Wiki founder originally from the Netherlands.
I've been a musician for over 15 years now - playing all sorts of instruments but especially guitar and saxophone. As a soundproofing specialist, I help people with their acoustic needs in order to make them happy! I also enjoy DIY projects around the house or wherever else they are needed - thanks to my wife who always has great ideas!
